The proposed Center for Environmental and Rural Health (CERH) at Texas A & M University will foster and promote basic and applied science programs which are focused on the impacts of environmental factors on human health. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding environmental and nutritional components of human disease with specific emphasis on their effects on rural communities. Environmentally-related diseases involve exposure to chemicals or physical factors that interact with the host to disrupt cell, tissue, and ultimately organ homeostasis. Thus, effective management of environmental disorders requires a comprehensive understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms of toxic injury. As part of the Center initiatives, research efforts will focus on the study of genetic basis of susceptibility to environmental factors taking advantage of genetic manipulation technologies. The development of measures that minimize the negative health outcomes associated with environmental exposures has often been limited by accessibility to target populations. An often under utilized strategy in the study of environmentally-related diseases has been nutritional intervention to modulate outcomes associated with exposure to environmental chemicals and related insults. Thus, Center efforts will be directed at the study of nutritional factors which influence the onset and progression of environmentally-related diseases in laboratory animals and in human populations. Finally, the development of methods for the detection, prevention, and control of environmentally-related diseases in rural communities will be accomplished by integrating the efforts of basic scientists, epidemiologists and biostatisticians. The Center will consist of 4 Research Cores (Cellular and Molecular Biology, Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Nutrition, and Biostatistics and Epidemiology) which will utilize 6 Facilities Cores (DNA Technology, Biostatistics and Computational, Field Services, Image Analysis, Transgenics, and Biological Mass Spectrometry). An Outreach Core will focus on interaction with rural communities and a Pilot Project Program will facilitate research interaction with potential new CERH members. An Administrative Core will coordinate activities of the proposed Center. Funding of the Center will synergistically enhance faculty research on important environmental health problems which impact rural populations and also provide an important linkage with the new School of Public Health being developed at Texas A & M University.
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